I haven’t been paying attention to my History Classes until now. I became a scale modeler and with it, history plays a great role. I am suddenly interested in documentaries, secret organizations, wars, power, air craft and tanks, bombs and battle ships, different countries and their ways of doing and seeing things, geography, and many other stuff related to the past such as politics and reigning over what kingdom or whatnot. All these, in my pea-sized brain whose cells are slowly degenerating into something hideous if I won’t be able to express everything inside it. And along with this, Paulo Coelho published a book in the last quarter of 2016, The Spy.

It’s amazing, how one thing connects to the other. Me being into history then my favorite author gives me something to read about history. Now, no matter how badly I want to talk about the book, I cannot because as usual, my brain is as damaged as a deteriorating pea. But then, I should warn you as the following notes/ quotes that I plucked out from the pages of The Spy might spoil you folks who haven’t read it yet.

Although I believe that my own thoughts from the notes and quotes I have taken is being used and experienced in our modern day lives, however old and true these words may be. Yet again, I am here to convince you to read Paulo Coelho’s books as they are not only inspiring but also a great influence!

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED!

Notable Quotes from The Spy

…memory is a river, one that always runs backward.

So you must learn to follow your destiny, whatever it may be, with joy. As flowers grow, they show off their beauty and appreciated by all; then, after they die, they leave their seeds so that others may continue God’s work.

Flowers teach us that nothing is permanent: not their beauty, not even the fact that they will inevitably wilt because they will still give new seeds.

Everything passes, grows old, dies, and is reborn.

Here I was in paradise, living my own personal hell.

…when the past dredges up a memory capable of opening old wounds, suddenly other wounds appear and make the soul bleed more deeply until you have to kneel down and cry.

My decision: I could no longer accumulate problems and live so far beyond the limits of human suffering.

My body can keep breathing, but my soul is dead here. I cannot leave here, nor can I make you understand I need you by my side.

Only love can give meaning to something that, on its own, has none at all.

I was not asking to be happy; I was asking only to not be as unhappy and miserable as I felt.

Art Nouveau: fashion’s latest trend.

Men love to explain things, and they have opinions on everything.

A thousand curves and movements combine perfectly with a thousand different rhythms.

Everyone flirts with danger, so long as that danger does not really exist.

At that moment, I was nothing, not even my body. I was just movements communing with the universe.

…each member of the audience had left enthralled, and this would be the best publicity I could ask for.

Never fall in love. Love is a poison. Once you fall in love, you lose control over your life–your heart and mind belong to someone else. Your existence is threatened. You start to do everything to everything hold on to your loved one and lose all sense of danger.

Love, that inexplicable and dangerous thing, sweeps everything you are from the face of the earth and, in its place, leaves only what your beloved wants you to be.

Love kills suddenly, leaving no evidence of the crime.

When a woman or a man is abandoned by the person they love, they are focused on their own pain. No one stops to wonder what is happening to the other person. Might they be suffering, having left behind their own heart to stay with their families because of society?

There’s no wind strong enough to make the boat change direction; it stays in the harbor, venturing only among still waters.

Everyone suffers; those who leave, those who stay, and their families and children. But no one can do anything.

When we do not know where life is taking us, we are never lost.

Know what you want and try to go beyond your expectations.

An artist who desires very little and achieves it has failed in life.

Love obeyed no rules.

Yes, love and power were the same thing.

…when we talk on the telephone, we enter a state that is similar to certain magical trances; we can discover other things about ourselves.

…the true sin is living so far removed from absolute harmony. That is more powerful than the truths and lies we tell every day.

Be who I am?How could I be true to myself if I didn’t even know exactly who I was?

In a war, the first casualty is human dignity.

You thought innocence was enough to extract you from the web of the legal system on which we have always prided ourselves, but that in these times of war has become an aberration of justice.

You were not merely a person unjustly accused of espionage, but someone who dared to challenge certain customs. And for that you could not be forgiven.

In the battle of sexes, all men, no matter their expertise in various arts, are always easily defeated.

In war, simple contact with a citizen of an enemy country is already suspicious and reprehensible.

Love is an act of faith and its face should always be covered in mystery.

Love does not obey anyone and will betray those who try to decipher its mystery.

…when we truly love, we know others and ourselves better. We do not need words, documents, minutes, statements, accusations. or defenses. We need only what Ecclesiastes says: ” Instead of justice, there was wickedness, instead of righteousness, there was more yet wickedness…But God will judge them all, both the righteous and the wicked, God will judge them both, for there is a time for every intention, a time for every deed.”

Now go read the book! 😀

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Published by jenrcab

A locked-up writer who loves coffee, tea, and chewing gum. An asian mom who lives by french parenting. A frank friend and companion who tells you right on if she likes you or not. Do not misunderstand it when she says "I like you" or "I miss you" cause it literally means that, no pun intended, just a friendly phrase from her, nothing more, nothing less.
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